Healthy competition keeps one motivated and helps stay on track, especially when the exam preparation goes on for years, believes Sai Lokesh Reddy, the 17-year-old who has scored All India Rank 5 in JEE Advanced – IIT entrance test and is now aiming to pursue Computer Science from IIT Bombay. Reddy was enrolled in Narayana residential school where he prepared for the IIT entrance since class 11. He believes having like-minded friends has helped him attain the feat. Half a dozen students from the institute have managed to crack the IIT entrance exam including rank 4 and 5 holders.
“I had made up mind in class 8 that I want to study from an IIT. At that time one of my relatives had cracked an IIT entrance and he was celebrated in the family before that I did not know anything about IIT or JEE. I started to research and started preparing since then. I brushed up my basic skills including studying NCERTs and improving my English language skills and started focused preparation from class 11 onwards,” said the 17-year-old.
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While preparing for IIT entrance Reddy moved to the hostel which he claims gave him an environment to prepare better. “I met many like-minded friends here. Seeing peers prepare, one gets motivated. While we used to all help each other out, there was always a healthy competition which kept us going,” he said.
The 17-year-old has been a consistently high scoring student. He had obtained 99.9 percentile in JEE Main first and second attempt and 100 percentile in his third attempt. While the 99.9 percentile was also enough for Reddy to appear in JEE advanced, he still appeared for Mains for practice as he believed that exam-taking skills too are equally important as subject knowledge.
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He appeared for at least one mock test every week and tried to complete the three-hour exam in at least 2 hours and 30 minutes and saved the remaining 30 minutes to recheck his answers and ensure that he does not lose any mark due to any calculation error, he told News18.com. Writing mock exams helped him analyse his preparations and rectify mistakes accordingly. He said that math was his strongest subject followed by physics, followed by chemistry. “Every Sunday, I would appear for a mock exam. After attempting the exam I would revise the topics I found difficult and practice them thoroughly. My friends also appeared for mock tests and we would discuss with each other. The healthy competition with friends was also helpful,” he said.
Apart from the national-level entrances, Reddy also appeared for state-level exams – TSEAMCET and APEAMCET. He obtained 17th and 73rd rank in both, respectively. “Every exam is a little different, even though the topics are almost similar. In APEAMCET, the focuses is on attempting all questions as there is no negative marking. In JEE Main the competition is higher and one has to be more accurate. Advanced has more competitive questions and it is test of both speed and accuracy,” said Reddy.
Reddy’s parents are teachers at government schools. He has a younger brother who is in class 12 and has opted for non-medical and he would be preparing for engineering entrance too.
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